In An Ideal World, Ron Paul Would Win

AP
I'm not a Ron Paul fanatic (although I did vote for him in the Florida primary, as I find his anti-NDAA, anti-police state message to be one I am increasingly attracted to, especially after several warrantless molestation incidents by the TSA -- the new normal is getting your testicles squeezed before boarding a domestic flight, evidently, and no one seems to care!)

With that said, in an ideal world where the corporate broadcast media wasn't constantly trying to marginalize or insult him, Ron Paul would survive -- and perhaps even win the GOP primary gauntlet. The problems that this country faces require a brave push of the ideological reset button, not merely four more years of the same hard-right-of-center policies which have brought us odious ideas, including but not limited to:

- US national debt of $15,363,318,000,000. That's more than $15 trillion, which would be enough to buy every ounce of gold on the planet Earth, and still have about $5 trillion left.

- The introduction and signing into law of NDAA, which effectively nullifies a large portion of the Bill of Rights, and allows American citizens to be detained by military force potentially for life without trial, attorney, and formal charges being brought against them. Even on U.S. soil.

Is Ron Paul a perfect candidate? No, I don't believe he is. Has he said some weird things in the past? It appears so. But he is the only 2012 GOP presidential candidate, aside from Gov. Buddy Roemer, who is even addressing these enormous issues.

I find it frightening that those in the lead -- including Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich -- have not sharply spoken out against the NDAA's dictatorial banana republic powers, or the outrageous amount of money we spend on "defense" at the expense of things like education and infrastructure, or the need to keep the Internet free from Big Brother censorship and surveillance.